e-books

December has come, which means it’s time to get a new calendar. The time has also come to spend your money prudently on art criticism books, or blow it on ostrich pillows. Cyber Monday may be over, but the Internet still offers an abundance of cheap art purchases.

It’s almost July, which means it’s time for our critically-acclaimed summer reading list, a list of books that, quite simply, we critics acclaim. Last summer, we gave you a list of novels artists love, just in time for your beach reading. This time around, we’ve provided our own mix, ranging from fiction on chatrooms and psychosis, and histories on New York and Elizabethan London.

Lean In has a solution to combat awful stock photos of women. With the help of the Getty, they’re releasing “empowering,” stereotype-defying stock photos. Tattooed mom holding her toddler? Check. Silver vixens? Check that box, too. [The Cut]

Here is some lovely and rare footage of the old Penn Station to really drive home how much of a garbage nightmare the current Penn Station is. [Gothamist]

Yuck. Plans have been hatched for another mega-museum, this time for a display of Central America’s Mayan artifacts. Nothing screams Mayan culture like an oppressive cement storage space. [Hyperallergic]

60 artworks have been removed from the Saltzburg home of the son of a Nazi-era art dealer, whose collection of 1,280 works includes Picassos, Renoirs, and Monets. [The New York Times]

At Monday’s Phillips contemporary sale in London, seven out of 32 lots failed to sell with a buy-in rate of 22 percent. The night’s top sales came from a predictable gang of “you know who’s” like Yayoi Kusama, Gerhard Richter, Damien Hirst, and Christopher Wool. Also doing well: Nate Lowman. Yawnnn. [ArtInfo]

After Time Out Chicago axed their full-time art critic, a flurry of criticism arose about how many full-time art critics are actually out there, and whether freelance critics count. Gallerist NY adds to this debate just by simply stating what critic Deborah Solomon stated on WNYC this week, that there are fewer than ten full-time art critics writing for newspapers. Yes, we know this, but many freelancers out there are upset that “full-time art critic” doesn’t refer to online publications or those who write for several. It’s an issue of legitimacy in the eyes of changing media. For that debate, just take a look at the comments section to this piece. [Gallerist NY]

Greg Allen is no fan of Architecture Firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s Hirschhorn design, “The Bubble”. Liz Diller wonders if the museum could be an agent for cultural diplomacy and proceeds to present a structure designed to house expensive events like TED, the WEF, and CFR fora. Why ask the question, if the purpose of the venue won’t ever answer the question. [Greg.org]

Fewer couples are having kids in the states, but they’re making way for more puppies. U-S-A! [The Atlantic]

Bushwick Open Studios starts next week, and runs from May 31st through June 2nd. Here’s the map of the 587 studios listed so far. [Arts in Bushwick]

Hennessy Youngman has come out with his second lo-fi mix this year, CVS Bangers Vol. 2. Listen to the mellow 80s tracks you’d hear while filling your cart up with Mac ‘n’ Cheez Whiz, interrupted by a blaring airhorn, then Hennessy-designed ads, then someone saying “Obama”. Just Obama. [Soundcloud via Twitter]

The Asia Society has hired a new President, Josette Sheeran, vice chair of the World Economic Forum. [The Wall Street Journal]

The Met just appointed a new curator to its Department of Medieval Art and the Cloisters, C. Griffith Mann, since the Cleveland Museum of Art’s chief curator. He’ll be bumping up current curator Peter Barnet to senior curator of that department. [Cleveland.com]